MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #45): Where we are *still* waiting on Lee Min Ho’s astronaut OBGYN to arrive and ponder whether 2024 will be kdrama’s breakout year

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the K-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, with a sprinkling of AmazonPrime, AppleTV and Disney+. There are also platforms streaming content illegally if you go looking. We don’t promote them as they are peppered with pop-ups of “Olga” and friends offering a good time, but we can point you in the right direction. We also dip into Japanese, Taiwanese & Chinese drama as & when.

The previous thread is www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4956077-mslattes-daebak-cybercafe-kdrama-addicts-44-in-which-a-surprise-feast-of-corking-contract-marriage-dramas-is-undercut-by-an-imminent-bts-content-famine-as-jung-kook-rm-v-and-jimin-enlist?page=1 here. Our list is cumulative so includes previous threads’ recommendations. Shows marked with a star are more uniformly loved or admired. In categorising series, its important to note most Korean dramas have multiple strands - e.g. supernatural, romance and a thriller; crime series with fantasy elements. Genre-busting mash-ups are normal. Series that are tagged as dark may also have moments of comedy or the absurd, likewise fluff can have heavier moments. Writer/actor Simon Pegg referred to it fondly as “tonal chaos” - it’s part of kdrama’s charm. View the categories below as best approximate & ask if you need guidance about suitability for younger viewers.

Comedy (with a side order of absurd)
I picked up a celebrity on the street (Viki)
My Fellow Citizens (Viki/Netflix)
The Fiery Priest (Netflix)

Crime/Thriller
Bloodhounds (Netflix)
Come and Hug Me (Dramafast)
Graceful Family (Viki)
Healer (Netflix)🌟
Heartless City (Viki)
He is Psychometric (Viki)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki)
Life on Mars (classy remake of BBC series, no major site yet)
Little Women (Netflix)
Maestra (Disney+)
My Name (Netflix)
My Secret Terrius (Netflix)🌟
Signal (Netflix)🌟
Somebody (Netflix, content warning: sexual & violence)
Snowdrop (Disney+)
Stranger - 2 seasons (Netflix)
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)🌟
The Lies Within (Netflix)🌟
The Worst of Evil (Disney+)
Tunnel (Netflix)🌟
Vigilante (Disney+)

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
100 Days My Prince (Viki/Netflix)
Crowned Clown (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Mr Queen (Viki)🌟
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)
Our Blooming Youth (Viki)
Pachinko (AppleTV)
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (Netflix)
Tale of Nokdu (Viki/Netflix)🌟
The Forbidden Marriage (Viki)
The King’s Affection (Netflix)
The Red Sleeve (Viki)🌟

Makjang
Perfect Marriage Revenge (Viki)

Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Business Proposal (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Dali & the Cocky Prince (Viki)
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as The Eighth Sense [BL] (Viki)
Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)🌟
Gogh, The Starry Night (Viki)
Happy Once Again (Netflix)
Her Private Life (Viki/Netflix)
His Master’s Sun (Netflix) 🌟
Hometown Cha Cha Cha (Viki)🌟
King The Land (Netflix)
Love from a Star (Netflix)🌟
Lovestruck in the City (Netflix)
Monthly Magazine Home (Viki)
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Race (Disney+)
Radio Romance (Netflix)
Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)🌟
Run On (Netflix)
Semantic Error [BL] (Viki)
She Was Pretty (Netflix)🌟
The Beauty Inside (Viki/Netflix)
The Secret Life of My Secretary (Viki/Netflix)
Thirty Not Seventeen (Viki) or as Still 17 (Netflix)
To My Star [BL] (Viki)
True Beauty (Viki)
Twenty-five Twenty-one (Netflix)🌟
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Netflix/Viki)
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)🌟
Where Stars Land (Viki)🌟
You are my Destiny (Netflix)
You Make Me Dance [BL] (Viki)
Yumi’s Cells (Viki)

Romance - heavier weight/more grown up themes
Another Miss Oh (Netflix)🌟
Because This Is My First Life (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Chicago Typewriter (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Crash Course in Romance (Netflix)
Crash Landing on You (Netflix)🌟
Daily Dose of Sunshine (Netflix)
Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Doctors (Netflix)
Doom At Your Service (Netflix/Viki)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)
Fight For My Way (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Go Back Couple (Viki)/Couple on the Backtrack (Netflix)
I’ll Go To You When The Weather is Nice (Viki)/When the Weather is Nice (Netflix)
It’s OK Not To Be OK (Netflix)
Just Between Lovers (Viki)/Rain or Shine (Netflix)🌟
Mad For Each Other (Netflix)🌟
Melo is my Nature (Viki)/Be Melodramatic (Netflix)🌟
My Strange Hero (Viki)
One Spring Night (Netflix)
Red Carpet - film (Netflix, very adult content)
Romantic Dr Kim - seasons 1&2 (Viki), season 3 (Disney+)
Search: WWW (Viki, Netflix)🌟
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
Tell Me That You Love Me (Disney+)
The Handmaid (film, Netflix - content warning: explicit sexual content)
The Package (Viki)

Straighter ‘Slice of Life’ dramas on universal themes
Gaus Electronics (Viki)🌟
Hospital Playlist (Netflix)🌟
Hospital Playlist 2 (Netflix)🌟
Into The Ring (Viki)
Itaewon Class (Netflix)
Live (Netflix)
Misaeng (Netflix)🌟
My Liberation Notes🌟
Move to Heaven (Netflix)
My Mister (Viki/Netflix)🌟
My Unfamiliar Family (Viki)🌟
Navillera (Netflix)🌟
Not Others (Viki)
Prison Playbook (Netflix)🌟
On The Verge of Insanity (Viki)
Once Again (Viki)
Our Blues (Netflix)🌟
Stove League (Viki)/Hot Stove League (Netflix)
Racket Boys (Netflix)
The Good Bad Mother (Netflix)
Would You Like a Cup of Coffee (Viki/Netflix)🌟

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - lighter & fluffier
A Time Called You (Netflix)
Alchemy of Souls (Netflix) 🌟Extraordinary You (Netflix)
Goblin (Viki)🌟
I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
Kiss Goblin (Viki, webdrama)
My Holo Love (Netflix)🌟
My Lovely Liar (Viki)
Orange Marmalade (Netflix)
Twinkling Watermelon (Viki)
While You Were Sleeping (Viki)🌟

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - darker/more grown up themes
#Alive (Netflix)
Black (Netflix)🌟
Delivery Man (Viki)
Happiness (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Hotel del Luna (Viki/Netflix)🌟
King: The Eternal Monarch (Netflix)
Kingdom (Netflix)🌟
Kingdom: Ashin of the North (Netflix)
Moon in the Day (Viki)
Mystic Pop-up Bar (Netflix)
Peninsula - film, Train to Busan sequel (Amazon Prime, iMovies)
Sisyphus (Netflix)
Sell Your Haunted House (Netflix)
The Guest (Netflix)
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)
W: Two Worlds (Viki & Netflix)🌟
Zombie Detective (Viki/Netflix)

Guilty Pleasures (for the joy, not the quality)
Bride of Habaek (Netflix)
Hwarang (Viki/Netflix)
My Secret Romance (Viki)
The Last Empress (Viki/Netflix)
Sassy Go Go (Netflix)

Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable
Behind Your Touch (Netflix)
Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
School Nurse Files (Netflix)

Not Korean ‘You May Also Like’
Regulars also branch out into Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese drama. The Chinese & Taiwanese stuff is much more variable quality-wise, so we’ve noted anything decent here:

Before We Get Married (Viki - Taiwanese)
F4 Thailand (Viki)
Fake it Till You Make it (Viki)
Find Yourself (Netflix - Chinese)
First Love (Netflix - Japanese)🌟
Go Go Squid (Viki - Chinese)
In House Marriage Honey (Viki, Japanese)
In Time With You (Viki - Japanese)
Instead of Tipsy Why Not Get Drunk (Viki, Chinese)
Lost Romance (Viki, Taiwanese)
Love O2O (Viki, Chinese)
Meet Yourself (Viki, Chinese)
Million Yen Women (Netflix, Japanese)
Morning Call (Netflix, Japanese)
My Little Happiness (Viki, Chinese)
My Personal Weatherman [BL] (Jdrama, Viki)
Orange Days (Japan, Netflix)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix, Chinese)
Rinko Wants To Try (Viki)
Some Day or One Day (Viki, Taiwanese)
Sweat and Soap (Viki, Japanese)
The Makanai (Netflix, Japanese)
The Romance of Tiger & Rose (Viki, Chinese)
To Fly with Me (Viki, Chinese)
Tientsin Mystic (Netflix, Chinese)
You Are My Hero (Viki, Chinese)*

AVOID 💩
Melting Me Softly
The Birth of a Beauty
Well-Intentioned Love season 1 (S2 is fine & stands alone)

Top Scoring 2023 Dramas
#1 Bloodhounds 8.9
#2 = The Good Bad Mother 8.8
#2 = Deaths Game 8.8
#2 = Moving 8.8
#2 = The Glory 8.8
(#2 rankings by number of votes)

Top Scoring 2022 Dramas
#1 My Liberation Notes 9.45
#2 Alchemy of Souls 9.10
#3 First Love 8.88 (Jdrama)
#4 Our Blues 8.83
#5 Gaus Electronics 8.75

Top Scoring 2021 Dramas
#1 The Red Sleeve - 10
#2 Happiness - 9
#3 Devil Judge - 8.75
#4 Squid Game - 8.6
#5 Navillera - 8.57

Top Scoring 2020 dramas
#1 Mr Queen - 9.4
#2 Parasite (film) - 9.05
#3 It's Okay To Not Be Okay - 8.88
#4 The Uncanny Counter - 8.50
#5 Once Again - 8.42

Top Scoring 2019 dramas
#1 Her Private Life - 9.40
#2 Melo is My Nature - 9.00
#3 tied: Crash Landing On You, The Crowned Clown, The Lies Within, and The Tale of Nokdu - 8.75
#4 Hotel del Luna - 8.50
#5 tied: Romance is a Bonus Book, and Search: WWW - 8.17

We are fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean cookery, language, current affairs, film and music when the mood takes us. A few of us are learning Korean, Japanese and/or Mandarin (some more diligently than others), so we swap tips and links to language resources. Basically, anything topical goes.

We often resort to acronyms and/or abbreviations of show titles or actors’ names. Don’t be afraid to ask for help/clues if we’re not making sense or have descended into acronym soup.

If you want to join us down the kdrama rabbit hole, welcome! Pull up a chair, say goodbye to early nights and get stuck in!

@PunksVersusBrats I cook Korean 75% of the time. Last year, I even grew 30 perilla plants! After going to Japan, Miso is a regular too.

Edited to add:
I'm not a fan of iced doughnuts either. If you don't like ice cream , try bingsu. Yum!

Krispy Kreme are all very well and good, but in Australia we have a chain that does hot cinnamon sugar donuts which are infinitely superior.

Finally finished A Good Day to Be a Dog - feel like it went off the rails a bit (meaning I was definitely preferencing the other currently airing dramas that I was watching). Some good kisses though.

Just finished the episode - that marriage meeting was totally brilliant, even better than the webtoon 😁 the MIL was so awful, I was grinning the whole way through it.

Doing ep 2 of Dr Slump now - both leads v likeable. PHS is cute in this with his floppy hair and hoody.

I KNEW that anaesthetist was sus!

OMFG I am OUTRAGED at Ha-neul's boss. Good for her, kick him harder!!

Her outfit for the dinner was so perfect and fabulous.

Just watched MMH 9 and feel like I downed a box of 12 donuts 😁So much YAAASSSS. I love that KJW is loving her villain era and the conspiratorial giggling with manager-nim, even if his stealth skills could be improved... maybe leave the hiding behind pillars to the less shapely of arse? Fully approve the continued supply of hand porn and proper consideration of tabby's fate.

@polkettle brava!!I don't even know who half the Toppas were but still very fully💀

@FedUpWithBriiiiick I watched Tomorrow I'll Be Someone's Girlfriend last year, agree it's both addictive and unsentimental and offers real insight into contemporary young women's lives in Japan. Even if some of the Kabuki-cho subculture stuff made me 😱. Living in hope of a Season 3 which would cover the rest of the manga chapters but also resigned to being left hanging as with so many Japanese adaptations!

The hiding behind the pillar in the villa was so stupid. At night they would have been reflected in the glass. The intern saw them for sure, she’s just not saying.

The villa was the location for Kim Woo Bin’s celeb mansion in Unbearably Fond. It hasn’t been used for a while, though it was in several dramas in quick succession then. I wonder if it has had tenants for a while.

Well that's why I felt a creeping sense of anxiety about the f'ing Villa. Still traumatised by Uncontrollably Fond!

Agree, she must have seen them hiding. Due to his butt poking out + reflection, as you say (also why hide? Just scoot apart and act like you are chatting surely? Way less suspicious!). Anyway, can't wait for tonight's episode!

Scoot apart like normal people when you could go in for the sneaky cradling? Fie!
I woke up in v. kdramatic fashion this morning realising there was also plot development with assistant manager Yang catching stray bits of fate? Soo-min's batting of those pretty-but-dead-inside eyes is truly deadly!

Joined the MMH party last night, and am enjoying immensely and loving seeing you all so immersed. Dr Slump is also lined up and to give myself a treat watched some shorts of PHS in Strong Girl and Happiness last night. I think he is another candidate for the remarkable/lovely ears list!

PHS definitely has remarkable ears 😁

We've just finished Geongseong Creature, which was enjoyable but a little bit of an odd mix of genres and tone, with long drawn out conversations at the height of action when active fleeing would appear a more natural reaction, so slightly frustrating at times. Still, I definitely want to know what happens next so I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Meanwhile I'm not sure what to watch next. I've got a couple of episodes of The Matchmakers to go and then I can join you guys on a current one but I'm not sure which one.

I am so confused by this Authentique business in MMH - I thought when she had the bag from there the lovely boss said it was a brand known for doing knock offs. And then it sort of made sense if Min Wha was shopping there too. But the boss is also shopping there and they are stocked by major airline duty free?? What?

I think Au! Then! Tique! (as MIL says it) is meant to be the brand that gets knocked off (Min-hwan's necklace, Soo-min's earrings etc.)

Then what was with the boss spotting the bag she was holding??

I realise it's a minor quibble in a fantastic show. I was cackling all the way through the dinner scene tonight!!

Ohhh sorry ISWYM Amva. That one time was because the manager knows about what's in the bag, I think.

Still enjoying The Kidnapping Day although I hope they don't try to tie everyone's backstories together too much (orphanage 🚩) Really appreciate how realistically competent the cops are, when it's so easy to go for the eeeevilly corrupt or cartoonishly inept options in a show like this.

I am amused by Park Song-Hoon doing another noble-cop-who-has-been-sidelined turn in The Kidnapping Day, straight after playing the same role in Not Others. I've completely fused the two characters into one in my head so will be moderately outraged if he suddenly gets a love interest.

Na In Woo and PMY clay pigeon shooting together? Chef’s kiss! I had to rewind to better appreciate NIW, who totally rocked that formal wear. But please kids - wear ear defenders at the range if you don’t want to end up with hearing loss. 🙏

Hello chingus - a belated thanks, Boaty, for the new thread, and welcome all newbies.

We’ve just finished Maestra which we thoroughly enjoyed. The story bowls along nicely with none of the dragging which sometimes happens in k dramas. Excellent acting too.
We’re now on Welcome to Samdari which seems fun and who can resist Ji Chang Wook.
However I wish every K drama didn’t always have to have prolonged drunken scenes. This is partly because I’m an emetophobe and dread vomiting scenes, but they’re also quite boring to watch.
Is there a single K drama without people getting plastered?

I would caution against watching Longing for You on viki if you’re enjoying Na In Woo in MMH. He’s badly miscast as a cop in a country town. I’m only 10 mins in & I’m thinking of binning it. The acting is, um, interesting…

😍

Just finished ep 9 of MMH
Dinner scene was classic! The dreadful boyfriend and the even worse 'other half' friend are superb in this show.
I do think the FL and ML scenes are slightly too drawn out.
Bring on the chaos I say!!

Oh my god! I watched that one! I did not even clock that it was the same guy 😱😱😱
If you want any kind of plot or resolution boaty don't watch it, it's a mess and goes totally bonkers makjang in places (but not in a good way, just in a 'wtf' way)

It's the one with the FL that's a Prosecutor and the fish chef brother, right?

Yes & yes Loup. Thank you for sparing me.